Susan Slotnick -Figures in Flight - A documentary about dance in priso

[Stecyk]

Figures in Flight - A documentary about dance in prison

Above link takes you to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Program site called the Sunday Edition.

Susan Slotnick is always moving. She is sixty-eight. A woman with presence. For decades, she has taught dance to children and teens in her hometown of New Paltz, New York, bringing good posture, proper foot position, a lot of discipline and the joy of movement into their lives.

But her star students are a little less fresh-faced.

They are convicted murderers, drug dealers and sex offenders: Many have spent more than half their lives behind bars.

Every Sunday for the past seven years, Susan has driven an hour up through the mountains to the Woodbourne Correctional Facility to see them, teach them.

Thick steel doors are buzzed open.

Guards lead a dozen men - in their baggy prison sweats - into a classroom.

Chairs and tables are pushed aside. A cassette tape is turned on.

And for six hours, Susan leads them through exercises and dances until their muscles ache, and she is satisfied they have the moves down pat.

Once you go to the CBC website, you can hit a link to listen to the documentary.